The exploding pen-Mt. Holly Road lockdown saga is leaving one very big unanswered question in its wake: Why were Charlotte firefighters surprised by and injured by triacetone triperoxide? Did they not know how unstable TATP is — more so than nitro? Or was it some sort of booby-trap? Were all department protocols observed when coming upon an unknown substance in a post-explosive investigation?

Meanwhile, local media have gone completely off the deep end in the case, obscuring just how hard it is to do anything targeted with this stuff. Not impossible mind you, just far beyond the reach of a couple of teen-age misfits.